Via Darknet
This is what the Canadian representatives of the entertainment industries were lobbying against when they organized a fundraiser for Liberal Party candidate Sam Bulte.
A French government crackdown on digital piracy backfired Thursday as lawmakers rebelled by endorsing amendments to legalize the online sharing of music and movies instead of punishing it.
The vote by members of France's lower house dealt a setback to Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, who introduced the draft legislation. Showbiz and cultural celebrities protested the latest move, an indication that the amendments' supporters may eventually have to back down.
Under the original proposals, those caught pirating copy-protected material would have faced $360,000 in fines and up to three years in jail.
An 11th-hour government offer to give illegal downloaders two warnings prior to prosecution was not enough to stem the rebellion. Instead, the amendments voted would legalize file-sharing by anyone paying a monthly royalties duty estimated at $8.50.
The article also mentions that
The right of consumers to make copies of their music and videos for private use is enshrined in European law, and media companies have faced legal action in France for selling copy-protected CDs and DVDs.
The record companies and their allies have to be very careful. Many music consumers (and not a few artists) hate the record companies. And look what happened. They tried to get file sharing banned in France and instead they got it legalized.
Update: This is what I mean by the anger at record companies. Michael Geist posts a letter from the owner of She Said Boom, an independent record store in west Toronto
Notice how nearly all of the great Canadian releases from last year (by artists like Arcade Fire, New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene and Feist) were developed and produced within the independent scene, with little help from mainstream radio or major label promotion. But the new changes proposed for copyright reform could put us all under corporate influence.
Corporations should not be given the absolute power to regulate how Canadians enjoy their music. But thanks to Sarmite Bulte and her friends, we can expect the industry to:
install more invasive "anti-piracy" software on our computers;
restrict legal iPod use, and control how and where we enjoy music;
place punitive tariffs on new music uses and channels that don't serve corporate interests;
and restrict how music fans discover new music by controlling podcasts, music blogs and other legitimate fan activity on the internet (check SOCAN tariff 22)
Those of us who have worked hard to build strong bonds with music fans cannot afford to have these relationships controlled within a corporate model under Bulte's proposed changes. And since we lack the close relationship with Bulte's parliamentary committee apparently enjoyed by corporate lobbyists, we will be unable to compete on a level playing field.
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